If there was a single word that describes what engineers look for in the localization process, what would it be? We found the answer long ago as we only started as a company. AUTOMATION is the solution to almost every challenge development teams face nowadays when building multilingual products.
Our collection of tools for development teams is one of the most extensive and ensures the level of automation developers seek. There are also apps to provide translators with context, better manage community translation, customize QA checks and placeholders, and more!
Integrations With Version Control Systems
Lack of automation is the key challenge engineers face. Source content should be constantly extracted from the code base and handed to the translation team, and ready translations should be integrated back. Without an automated approach, this workflow turns into a constant and irritating file sending back and forth.
To avoid any manual file transfer, you can connect your Crowdin and Crowdin Enterprise projects with as many repositories on GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, and Azure Repos as you need. No limits here.
Integrations with GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, and Azure Repos ensure that you can:
- Build a continuous localization process for your tech products
- Localize features while they are still in development and release multilingual versions right away
- Keep sources in the localization projects and translations on the repo instantly up-to-date
- Review source content in Crowdin and update copy on the repo automatically
Learn more about version control management in localization.
Crowdin App for Pseudo-Localization
Before you start with the actual translation, it’s always a good idea to check if your application is ready for localization. With the Pseudo-Localization app, you can download your app files pre-translated in any selected language.
This will allow you to:
- See if all the localizable texts are extracted and added to your Crowdin project
- Check how your design supports different character sets and right-to-left/left-to-right languages
- Detect non-translatable texts in your software to hide these strings in the actual project
- Check translations length to see if any further design customization are necessary
Apps for More Customization in Crowdin Enterprise
Verbal Tester
Our system highlights the common placeholders in the Editor by default. But if you want to add custom placeholders for your source strings, you can create, debug, and test them with the Verbal Tester app.
Learn more about configuring custom placeholders.
Script Editor
Custom QA checks help you set your logic into the quality assurance control within your localization projects. The use cases are multiple: specific spaces after punctuation, localization of URLs, language-specific symbols, and more.
With the Script Editor app, you can develop and debug scripts in JavaScript and create custom QA checks for Crowdin Enterprise. You can find some samples of custom QA checks on the Crowdin Store.
Learn more about our new product Crowdin Enterprise.
Apps and External Tools to Give Context for Translators
XSL Transformer for XML
With the XSL Transformer for XML app, translators can preview XML files with the styles indicated in the XSL file right inside the translation Editor.
Editor Anywhere
With the Editor Anywhere plugin for websites, you can allow your translation team or community to translate the texts directly within a web application.
First, you’ll need to add a script to your website, the same as you do for Google Analytics, for example. After this is done, your website visitors will be able to select any text on a page and click the Search button. If users have accounts in Crowdin, they will be redirected to the Crowdin Editor with the necessary string opened. They can then provide a new translation or review the existing one.
Appetize.io
With the Crowdin app for Appetize.io, you can connect your projects in Crowdin and on the Appetize.io emulator. Once you do, translators will be able to run your app directly in the Editor and get the context right away.
The app helps to take app screenshots that can then be uploaded to the project for further reference. Applicable for both Android or iOS app localization.
Context-Related Features of Mobile SDK
If you use Crowdin mobile SDK to localize Android and iOS apps and deliver translations to users instantly, you can also configure two context-related features. They will allow translators to preview the app’s translations in real-time and help project managers upload screenshots to the Crowdin project effortlessly. Learn more about the extra features of Crowdin mobile SDK.
Apps to Sync Content With Remote Servers
Amazon S3
If you have your files stored on Amazon servers, with the Amazon S3 app, you can set up an automated content synchronization between Amazon S3 and Crowdin.
After installing the app and providing the authentication credentials, you can upload the necessary files to your Crowdin project in a few clicks.
Once the translations are ready, you can also synchronize them back with Amazon S3.
HTTP
The HTTP app ensures integration on the HTTP protocol so that you can synchronize your source files with your Crowdin project and upload translation back automatically.
The app UI looks pretty similar to the Amazon S3 app and allows you to upload sources to Crowdin and download ready translations back to the server in a few clicks.
For Those More Conservative
You can also install the WebDAV, FTP Remote, SFTP apps and synchronize content between the remote servers and your Crowdin project. The algorithm is the same as with the two previous apps. You select the content you want to translate in Crowdin and upload translations back.
Apps for Open-Source Teams (And Not Only)
Badges & Status Images
With the Badges & Status Images app, you can generate badges, charts, and additional graphics to illustrate the localization progress in your Crowdin Project. You can then add them on your website or your repository to show the localization status for each target language.
README.md Contributors
If you engage your community in localization, it’s always important to acknowledge those who work most of all and celebrate their contribution with some engaging presents or bonuses. The README.md Contributors is a CLI that will help you find the most active contributors automatically.
Crowdin App to Translate Non-Mission-Critical Websites
The JS Proxy app helps translate websites on WordPress, Webflow, Joomla, and similar systems that are usually very hard to approach if you want to set up a continuous workflow for your content.
How does the app work? First, JS Proxy crawls your website, extracts all of the translatable texts, and adds them to your Crowdin project. Then, you’ll need to add a piece of JavaScript to your website, and this will let your visitors see the Switch language button.
When a user clicks on the necessary language, the JS Proxy app will fetch the latest translations for this language directly from your Crowdin project. To make the latest translations available for over-the-air delivery, open the app and click Distribute.
Learn more about translating websites with JS Proxy.
You Can Build Apps to Extend Crowdin. Remember?
If you haven’t seen the necessary app, you can easily build it to use privately or get it featured on Crowdin Store. This can be an integration with an existing service, a new feature, or any functionality for Crowdin or Crowdin Enterprise.
Use any of the preferred programming languages and web frameworks and deploy your app in many different ways. Learn more about building apps for Crowdin and Crowdin Enterprise.
